August 18-The Bishop McDevitt Crusaders opened the 2007 season with an impressive offensive display against Conestoga Valley this morning in Lancaster. The McDevitt offense ran a total of 45 plays, with the first and second teams splitting the first 40 plays and the JV offense running the last 5. They totaled 738 total yards (536 rushing, 202 passing) and posted 9 touchdowns, although one was called back due to a penalty. Not to be outdone, the McDevitt defensive units held the Buckskins scoreless, recovered 2 fumbles and picked off 2 passes, one of which was returned for a touchdown. Coach Jeff Weachter had decided to concentrate on his rushing game for this scrimmage, and no less than 13 players registered carries. Two Crusaders topped 100 yards, with junior Billy Stair rushing for 136 yards and a touchdown on 4 carries, and senior Mike Jones had 120 yards and 3 tallies on 4 carries. Heralded freshman Jameel Poteat had the crowd buzzing, gaining 92 yards in 4 carries, including a 70 yard scoring jaunt the first time he touched the ball, and junior Pat Vargo had a 6 yard touchdown run. The passing game was limited to 15 attempts, but junior starter Kyle Koncar and freshman backup Matt Johnson made the most of them. Koncar completed 4 passes in 8 attempts for 89 yards and a touchdown, and added 16 yards on the ground on 3 carries. The promising Johnson was 4-for-7 for 113 yards and 2 scores, with 45 yards rushing on 3 carries. Senior Julian Harrell led all receivers with 3 catches for 64 yards and a touchdown. Sophomore Salath Williams and junior Saul Yeiser added scoring grabs. Defensively, McDevitt faced a CV attack that passed 80% of the time, and the Crusaders were up to the task. The Buckskins never seriously threatened to score as the active McDevitt secondary turned back every threat. Stair recorded an interception and sophomore Aaron Sye returned a pick 57 yards for a touchdown.

The teams alternated 10 play possessions starting from the 30 yard line and McDevitt had first possession. The Crusaders started Koncar and Stair in the backfield, with senior Tyrell Harris, senior Mike Comasco and Harrell at the wideouts. Senior Derrell Holland subbed in at the fullback position as needed. The tight end was junior Terahje Gratkowski, and seniors Ed Mera and Jordan Knox were the tackles. Seniors John Koury and Jared Henley started at guard, and junior Vince Sullivan was the center. Koncar promptly hit Harrell over the middle for a 35 yard gain, and Stair followed by taking a Koncar pitch for a 28 yard advance to the CV 7. After a fumbled snap, a loss of 3 and an incompletion, Jones darted 10 yard for the first score of the scrum. On the next play (with the ball spotted back on the McD 30) Jones took a perfectly-timed pitch from Koncar, avoided a sprawling linebacker and roared 70 yards for another score. A 13 yard Koncar-to-Harrell hookup ended the successful first series.

McDevitt’s first defense consisted of Gradkowski and senior Evan McGovern at end, with Knox and Henley playing tackle. Sophomores Fred Dietz and Jonathan Duckett joined junior Dante Ushery at linebacker, and Harris and senior Darryl Hadley started at cornerback. The safeties were Harrell and Comasco. The Buckskins tried passing on every one of the 10 plays, but could only manage 9 total yards. The second Crusader offense featured Johnson at quarterback, with Poteat and sophomore Steve Mosey in the backfield. Sophomore Ryan Kuntz was the tight end, and seniors Corey Miller and Sean Burns were the tackles. Sophomores Derek Harhigh and Victor Shaffer were the guards, and Mark Sallinger was the center. Williams, sophomore Chris Houston and Hadley alternated with others at wide receiver. Poteat began this session with a sparkling 70 yard touchdown run that was unfortunately called back for an undisclosed penalty. Stair followed with a 49 yard run down the far sideline and, after a dropped pass, Johnson ran a keeper 13 yards to the CV17. After a 1 yard Mosey run and a 7 yard Poteat blast, Johnson lofted a soft pass that Williams gathered in across the goal like. Johnson ran other keeper, this time for 15 yards, before targeting Houston for a 30 yard gain. McGovern ended the series with a 9 yard gallop up the middle.

The second team defense had Koury and sophomore Stefan Bell at tackle, and Kuntz and sophomore Ryan Kenney at end. Sophomores Anthony Pyzikiewicz and Derek Harhigh joined freshman Sean Baroswki at the linebacker spots. The secondary alternated Sye, Houston, Stair, sophomore Brandon True and senior Dan Neve. They dominated the line of scrimmage, with Kuntz and Bell making tough plays. After Stair intercepted on the 8^th play of the series Sye made his pick, darting in front of a would-be receiver and weaving 57 yards for an impressive touchdown return. McDevitt’s first offense returned and got right to work. Koncar kept for 13 yards and 2 Holland runs netted another 14. Following an incompletion Koncar pitched to Comasco, who sped 49 yards down the sideline before bowling over a CV defender at the 1 yard line. Jones tacked on the touchdown with a short run. Koncar then passed to Gradkowski, who made a fine catch for a 25 yard gain. Then Jones took another timely pitch from Koncar and bolted for an apparent 50 yard touchdown run, but the officials ruled him out-of-bounds at the CV 16. On the next play Koncar launched a pass down the middle for Harrell. The sturdy senior managed to fight off an early tackle attempt by the Buckskin defender and make the touchdown catch at the same time.

The Crusader’s starting defense returned for one final series and CV had it’s most success of the morning. Discarding the passing attack, the Buckskins managed to penetrate to the McD 35 using short, tough runs on the final 5 plays to gain 32 yards, much to the dismay of Crusader Defensive Coordinator Pat Berry, who made his displeasure evident to the McDevitt defensive line. The second offense’ final appearance was highlighted by tough running from Poteat, Stair’s 65 yard TD run, William’s 36 yard keeper from the quarterback spot and Vargo’s 6 yard scoring blast. The backup defense had similar success. Harhigh recovered a fumble on the first play and the defense swarmed for the rest of the series holding CV to 11 total yards. Then it was time for the JV to show their stuff. Limited to only 5 plays, the McDevitt squad made the most of their short time on the field. They ended the series with a 65 yard scoring pass from Johnson to Yeiser. The JV defense was as successful as their varsity counterparts, showing aggressive play and ending the scrimmage on another McDevitt high note.

The Crusader’s next scrimmage is Saturday, August 25^th, at McDevitt Field. The down-and-distance scrimmage, against Manheim Township, is scheduled to start at 10:00 AM.

QUOTES

Head Coach Jeff Weachter

I saw some good things today. Obviously, for the most part the running backs made some real good cuts. I thought our quarterbacks, all three of them, made good decisions running the veer. Their ends were really crashing down on the veer back so our quarterbacks were doing a great job of pulling and pitching under duress. I was real happy with our pitches. The receivers really threw a lot of good blocks downfield. We know that our passing game is going to be pretty good so we wanted to come out this morning and establish a running game and have our offensive linemen come off the ball. Our receivers weren’t real happy when we told them on Wednesday that we were only going to throw the ball a few times, but they did a great job of blocking downfield. That’s why we had so many long runs. The only negatives on offense were a couple of times we got stuck on some running plays so I want the line to come out lower, and twice Kyle was flushed out of the pocket without a blitz so we need to work on our pass blocking. Defensively, the defensive line was just way too high. We were arm tackling, which is very disappointing because we had four days of tackling stations. So we need to get better defensively, get a little more physical but overall it wasn’t a bad scrimmage. We’re going to evaluate the whole scrimmage on film to see who played well. We told the kids that every position is up for grabs now. It’s hard to say now who played well because during the scrimmage you try to look at so many things, but we’ll look. We still have some battles on the offensive line.  

Assistant Coach Pat Berry

We did a great job of covering the pass, but we didn’t get much pressure on the quarterback and we definitely have to work against the run. That’s it in a nutshell. It is frustrating playing a team that passes all the time when you’re working on your run defense, without a doubt. I think in their first 10 plays they passed 9 times and our kids probably got used to it and played a little soft.   

QB Kyle Koncar

I think things went OK We had a lot of things to work on with the offensive line but I think they came out here and played real well. Mike Jones had a lot of big runs and that can be attributed to the line blocking downfield, like coach Wec said. I can work on some of my passes and I liked the opening play, which was real cool. The timing is really good on the option. We worked a lot on that in the off season and in practice last week. We wanted to come out here today and work on it also. We have a real good team attitude. We want to come into every game knowing that we can win

OG/DT Jared Henley

My arm is a lot better (broken last year). Everything’s put back together! I’m trying not to break it again so I have my brace on all the time. I was healed in February so it didn’t bother me when I was working out. The line still has a lot of work to do but we’re still getting better every single day. It helped that we worked so hard in the off season so that when it comes to things like running, we’re in better condition. I like playing defensive tackle. It takes a lot less thought. You can just go out there and hit someone.

RB/DB Mike Jones

We got a lot done today. Our line is coming through for us, but we can’t get bold-headed; we have to keep working hard and get better every day. We had Coach Kauffman come down and he worked a lot with us on the veer and the whole offense just looks better; we’re starting to get the whole timing down and everything. Playing defense is good but I got fewer reps today because I played a lot of running back. The defense looks good; we’re going to be real fast this year. Practice is real intense and it keeps getting more intense as the season approaches. These are just scrimmages. These are just to get our timing right. They don’t really mean anything.

OT/DT Jordan Knox

We did good for the first scrimmage but we need to pick it up for the other games. Personally I think that I did all right but I have to improve on my pass blocking. It’s just a matter of moving my feet. On defense we need to pick it up because we didn’t do that good on the line today.

TE/DE Terahje Gradkowski

Defensive end is different than offense; you have to be more aggressive. It’s hard when they step back and throw the ball, but I’m picking it up. If coach wants plays for the tight end, we’ll have them. They were dropping a lot of people back on defense so we didn’t throw the ball a lot but I got open anyway by adjusting the route. Practice has been good so far but we can still get better.

Equipment Manager John Vugrenic

I think that we are going to be OK this year but we better get some defensive linemen. The kids are great this year but the kids are always great. It’s the coaches that are a pain in the #@*!

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